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AFP Foil Russian Crime Gang's $570m Cyber Theft Bid

POLICE have foiled an elaborate bid by a Russian organised crime gang to steal $570 million from Australian companies it hacked into.

Source: The Herald Sun

Australian Federal Police are expecting arrests to be made overseas in what is an ongoing investigation by it and Russian authorities into the massive attempted theft.

Had it been successful it would have boosted what the AFP estimates to be the $4.6 billion a year cost of cyber crime in Australia to above the $5 billion mark.

The Herald Sun has discovered members of the Russian syndicate infected the computer systems of scores of Australian companies with malicious software (malware) that enabled them to secretly monitor their banking activities.